“But what about the 115 charges?!” – A Week in the City

Manchester City won a treble last year.

There’s other ways I could have opened this article but this one doesn’t really get old, so I’ll take the excuse to do so.

Manchester City won a treble last year. The Premier League, the UEFA Champions League and the FA Cup. An achievement matched only by one single team, 24 years prior. Unlike that team 24 year prior, however, they then went on to win the UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Championship, sealing a run which has seen them be the current champions of five of the most prestigious trophies in world football at the same time.

One thing has been missed, amongst all the noise. Of course, when Manchester City won all of these trophies, the footballing world, particularly neutral fans, cried out in joy and celebration at the club finally sealing their utter dominance of the last five years with a fitting historic treble, and Pep Guardiola finally proving that he can, in fact, win a Champions League without Lionel Messi.

The media, in all its forms, was so preoccupied with celebrating, unilaterally and without question, Manchester City’s victories that it neglected to mention a small detail.

That detail is, of course, 115 charges.

Some of you reading this may not be aware that there are any charges at all being levelled at Manchester City, as it’s rarely mentioned. Replies to every single article about FFP or PSR are littered with bemused fans crying out, “What about Manchester City?!” as the great media conspiracy to simply never acknowledge these charges rages on.

Broadcasters refuse to speak of the charges. Read any Manchester City match report after a victory, read any opinion piece about how great this team is, you’ll never see any mention of the number 115 anywhere.

Manchester City are in annihilation mode: the double-treble is the target | Barney Ronay https://t.co/i5B7qEHEFC

— Guardian sport (@guardian_sport) February 6, 2024

Journalists don’t speak about it in their spare time. There’s nobody in the mainstream media, nobody whatsoever, who will put their neck on the line and tell the world what we all instinctively know – that Manchester City are big corrupt doodie heads who have besmirched our beloved sport.

Thank god, then, that there are brave Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal fans on standby, ready to stand up to the corrupt, Manchester City abiding media who allow this disgusting mockery of English football to stand unopposed. It’s never even mentioned on Sky Sports or anything.

Ian Wright addresses the elephant in the room for Manchester City 👀🐘 pic.twitter.com/81UDT8PW8H

— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) March 11, 2024

The fans stuck it to the media narrative on the latest edition of The Overlap Fan Debate. ‘Big Steve’, who from now on I will refer to as ‘Big SHILL’, dared to imply that there is a world of possibility where Manchester City might not be guilty, which is clearly blatant Abu Dhabi propaganda, bought and paid for.

Then it came. The Spartacus moment of our generation. Step forward, Adam McKola, ready to push back on this Manchester City fan and, indeed, the world.

"You know nothing and I know nothing!" 😬

"I feel Jerry Springer here!" 🍿@AdamMcKola & Big Steve clash over Man City's alleged 115 charges! 🫣 pic.twitter.com/5o4QAXgpkE

— The Overlap (@WeAreTheOverlap) March 13, 2024

“It’s financial doping,” he murmured, unable to contain himself as this disgraceful Sheikh Mansour mouthpiece dared to mention that the club is due its day in court and that if they’re found guilty, he’ll hold his hands up and take his licks.

Jamie Carragher, realising that somebody was willing to take a stand alongside him, decided to release the shackles of the media. He’s not in the Sky Sports studios anymore, or even on CBS subtly accusing his co-stars of being unfaithful to their partners, no, he’s free now. Free to combat the AGENDA.

“When you see Manchester City say they’re bringing in more revenue than anybody in the world – that is ridiculous. That can’t be right.”

The streets of Liverpool were lined with fans as if they’d won a major trophy in a non-covid season. A regional bank holiday was marked in Carragher’s honour.

“Finally,” they cheered, “Finally one of our own has said it, City are liars!”

Carragher finished his point, confident that no winning five of the last six titles in the most commercially massive football league in the world could ever account for such revenues. No regular Champions League semi-finals, and a couple of finals, could ever lead to a club bringing in that kind of money. No marketable players and managers, like Erling Haaland, Kevin De Bruyne or Pep Guardiola, could ever lead to the club demanding higher sponsorship fees and greater desire from companies to be involved with the club.

No, none of that is possible. Jamie Carragher is, of course, as always, in the right – Manchester City are liars. He was, as the kids say, spitting bars.

Big Steve, the corporate stooge, attempted to defend the club once again with silly assertions like “domestic quadruples” and “trebles” and “centurions” making a club more marketable. All ridiculous ideas, reeled off as if straight out of an Abu Dhabi press release.

Adam McKola could sit by no longer.

“It’s financial doping!” McKola was defiant. He had Big Steve on the ropes now.

After consulting with one of Manchester City’s 814 lawyers, Big Steve retorted, “Are you a lawyer?”

Uh oh. McKola hadn’t counted on this. He thought that “just knowing” that Manchester City are guilty is all it would take. Why was he being asked to provide any relevant credentials or evidence? Why wasn’t Big Steve just backing down?!

McKola stared into the sky, the bright lights of the studio beaming into his soul. Tears formed in his eyes – it’s time to go on the offensive.

“It’s O.J.!” The emotion took hold, he couldn’t let a silly Manchester City fan best him. McKola was right, it is just like the O.J. Simpson trial – everybody has made their minds up already about Manchester City’s absolute abuse of the system. Their cheating is blatant and there for all to see, and we don’t need a guilty verdict to see that. We’ll never believe their innocence, no matter what the courts say!

Big Steve then did something really, really nasty, and typical of a scumbag Manchester City fan – he made a joke about Manchester United being bad.

This was the final straw. McKola knows Manchester United are bad but coming from a filthy blue, he would not stand for it. The tears were brimming to the surface now, he was ready to let out a big cry but he held it together.

Quick, he thought to himself, need to distract from the fact I’m only saying this because I’m biased and don’t like Manchester City, have to make something up!

“You just called Manchester City the Etihad! You just called them a state!”

“No I didn’t.” Big Steve’s response was swift and McKola had not counted on him denying it. Maybe he’d finally met his match after all.

He breathed a sigh of relief as the conversation was taken away from him by Carragher. He’d survived the altercation, he’d managed to avoid crying on one of the biggest fan platforms in football and, most importantly, he had brought Manchester City’s often-forgotten 115 charges to the minds of the masses. Adam McKola 1 – 0 Manchester City.

What this incident taught us is that nobody needs pesky things like evidence and relevant legal experience to be able to judge this case. Everybody has seen a few tweets from other fans about one or two of the charges, so that’s all anybody really needs to know. Deeper analysis isn’t required when you just know City are guilty.

No matter what the judgement is that comes from the independent commission, there’s no way anybody can be convinced that City are anything other than massive, guilty cheats. Just because Manchester City can convince idiotic organisations like CAS that they’ve not done anything wrong with their sponsorships, that doesn’t mean they can fool Manchester United fans. They know better.

I just hope that the media get their act together and start acknowledging these charges, before City potentially get away with their reputation cemented as the world’s most beloved club.

Author disclaimer: The Overlap clip may or may not have played out exactly the way I described, any artistic license taken with the emotions or inner monologues of any contributors to the Overlap are purely done for entertainment purposes and are (probably) not accurate reflections of the inner workings of those involved… but there’s also technically a chance that my characterisation of the innermost thoughts is totally accurate, and we can’t completely rule that out.